Lot n° 99
Estimation :
3500 - 4000
EUR
Result with fees
Result
: 2 636EUR
FLAUBERT Gustave (1821-1880). - Lot 99
FLAUBERT Gustave (1821-1880).
4 L.A.S. " Gve Flaubert ", 1871-1879, to Jeanne de TOURBEY, countess of LOYNES; 1 page and a half, 1 page (on blue paper), 2 and 2 pages in-8.
Beautiful gallant and pessimistic correspondence, during the writing of Bouvard et Pécuchet. [Jeanne Detourbay, known as de TOURBEY, who became in 1873 by marriage Countess de LOYNES (1837-1903), held an influential salon; nicknamed "the lady with violets", she had many lovers]. Dieppe March 12 [1871]. He delayed writing to her, "because I burned, when the Prussians arrived at my house, many papers among which was the letter giving me your address in London! I thought of you - & of the terrible loss you have made [her lover, the minister Jules Baroche]! The idea of your pain added to my grief - which was excessive. I am amazed at what one can endure without dying! When all was lost, I took refuge in Rouen, then in Dieppe - my poor Croisset still has 40 Prussians! and I had 10 for 45 days! The gall is choking me & I am, like you, arrested at the fixed Despair. [...] I kiss you very tenderly and I am (as you used to call me in happier times) your old faithful friend"... Croisset 28 [December 1874]. "One forgets one's old friend! It's bad - for three months not a word! but I think of you, dear beautiful one, and very often, still! - so that [I] wish you a Happy New Year, just like a bourgeois. Let 1875 be light for you! You won't see me for another six weeks. I am working over my head. &, (given the solemnity of New Year's Day) I kiss all the places of your pretty person that you will abandon to my not very respectful friendship - for you are not yet respectable my beautiful Friend, but always enviable - and desired "... Sunday [Croisset end of October 1878]. "It is not possible to be better than you my dear beautiful friend. - What a good & kind letter! How like you! We will be a long time without seeing each other. For I will not return to Paris before the beginning of February! It is the way to advance my interminable book more quickly! Existence seems to me less and less funny. In the intervals of my work I brood over my past, I think of the Present (which is gloomy) & I think of my flat tire - these are my pleasures. - From time to time, also the image of your charming figure appears to me & I would like to cover it with kisses. - Another dream, another subject of sadness. Anyway, nothing is as good as to know that there is an exquisite person thinking about you. [...] The Fairy Tale [The Castle of Hearts] of which Daudet spoke to you is an old bear - that I am now trying to place, from which I would like to get some money, - & that I find myself, at the height of the most applauded, - which is to estimate it very low. [...] I dream of your hands & I kiss them while I am on your knees"...
Saturday evening [Croisset, November 8, 1879]. "No! my dearest beauty, Mr. Plessy did not send me any thanks. Does that surprise you? - Not me! I know people! When we are face to face, I will tell you my whole opinion of this person - it is mediocre. That's the end of the story. By the way, good woman, a qualification that does not mean anything. She had a lot of talent, but talent is not the whole being - it depends on a particular faculty, & very limited, and people of genius, can be fools outside their speciality. I know nothing of Nana [by ZOLA], therefore I can say nothing about it. But I have enjoyed the last volume of our friend Renan. What a jewel of erudition! What a historian. For the chapter I am writing now [Bouvard et Pécuchet] I read a lot of modern devotional books & today I found something very nice - which I am sending you for your recreation: "Have you not committed dishonest acts with animals?"(Manuel du jeune Communiant, p. 370) - The affairs of the Stock Exchange, of which you speak to me, do not reach me - thank God - as soon as one speaks to me about these things, - or sleep takes me, (a sleep of invincible boredom) - or exasperation. You ask me when we shall see each other? It will not be tomorrow, alas! since I shall not leave my cabin until I have finished my dreadful book - that is to say, at the end of the winter. Keep me your affection, dear beautiful & believe in the unalterable tenderness of your old devotee "... Correspondance (Pléiade), t. IV, p. 289, 898 ; t. V, p. 456, 734.
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